Erin Aylward delivers statement on cultural rights at the UN Human Rights Council

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2015 scholar Erin Aylward recently delivered a statement in response to the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights at a meeting of the Human Rights Council. She spoke on behalf of Allied Rainbow Communities International, an LGBTI NGO. She began by addressing the rise in hate speech and hate violence in the USA following the 2016 election, and rejected any attempts to justify xenophobia or Islamophobia using LGBTI rights. She then discussed how religious and nationalist groups sometimes abuse cultural rights to target those perceived as belonging to the LGBTI community and touched on the phenomenon of states using financial crises or austerity to justify reducing cultural protections.

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Through her rich career in law, science, and public policy, she has advocated for a wide range of issues, from the reform of democratic institutions to women’s work-life balance and access to medical reproductive technologies.